# Rosneft Rosneft is Russia's largest state-controlled oil company, led by Putin ally Igor Sechin. Its opaque December 2016 partial privatization -- a 19.5% stake nominally sold to a Glencore / Qatar Investment Authority consortium -- became infamous for the unanswered question of who really financed and ultimately owned the stake, and is cited in [[The Octopus]] frame as a possible payoff for a pro-Russia oil policy. ## The 2016 deal The stake was sold via the state holding company Rosneftegaz while Rosneft was under U.S. and EU sanctions imposed after the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Glencore and Qatar each contributed only small equity slices, with the bulk funded by opaque loans; the Russian state retained majority control. A Reuters investigation ("How Russia sold its oil jewel without saying who bought it") captured the central mystery -- the true beneficial ownership was never transparently established. ## The Octopus reading [[The Octopus]] frame links Rosneft to the policy that Iran-Contra figure [[Robert McFarlane]] is said to have advocated in 2006 -- U.S. strategic access to Arctic oil -- and to the [[2016 Trump Mayflower Hotel Foreign Policy Speech]] attended by McFarlane and the Russian ambassador. Rosneft is the "Big Oil = Russian oil" endpoint of the strand. ## Epistemic status Rosneft's state control, the sanctions context, and the opacity of the 2016 deal are documented. The inference that the deal was a "payoff" for a Trump-Russia oil alignment is Troy's interpretation, not an established finding. ## See also - [[The Octopus]] - [[Gazprom]] - [[Robert McFarlane]] - [[2016 Trump Mayflower Hotel Foreign Policy Speech]]